First established in 1870, a new Standard Oil Trust was re-organized in 1882.
Separate corporations were set up in each state. Each had its own board of directors with the stock of the various corporations controlled by trustees who issued dividend-bearing certificates of interest to the stockholders of Standard Oil of Ohio. The trustees controlled two-thirds of all the available shares.
By 1907, four years before the court-ordered breakup, the largest shareholders were: John D. Rockefeller (248,000 shares),
D. M. Harkness (80,000 share),
Charles Pratt estate (52,000 shares),
Oliver Payne (40,000 shares),
Henry M. Flagler (30,000 shares), Henry H. Rogers (16,000 shares), Jabez Bostwick estate (15,000 shares), William A. Rockefeller (11,700 shares) Henry Morgan Tilford (6,000 shares),
John D. Archbold (6,000 shares), and
William G. Warden (5,800 shares).